Penguin and Groundhog Wedding
I was lucky to be able to make a cake for and attend a beautiful wedding for my friends. She loves Penguins and he loves Groundhogs. 
The colors for the wedding were Red, Navy Blue and white.
The beautiful bride and groom settled on a lemon cake with raspberry preserves and a lemon curd, I covered the tiers in Swiss merengue butercream and fondant. 
I made two cute cake toppers for their two tiered cake. A penguin, and a groundhog. Made out of fondant.
The cupcakes also lemon cake, with lemon curd and raspberry preserves. All 130 cupcakes had a Swiss Merangue buttercream.
To display the cupcakes and cake. I made a cupcake stand and cupcake wrappers.
This was the mock up of the cupcake stand and cake stand. The cupcake wrappers were also a mock up. I did not like the solid red and white so I redid them, in the navy blue and red and white. With the punch out detail. I made all 130 wrappers as I could not find a wrapper that I liked for this wedding pre-made. I am pretty happy with the way they came out.
Here is a picture of the cupcake wrapper manufacturing. =)
I had a blast at the wedding, it was beautiful, and full of surprises. I hope the best for my happily married friends. I am putting the rest of the photos in a slide show. But here is a picture of my beautiful children first at the wedding. =)
Here are the other photos:
Cake pops with the kids
Been away for a while. We had really sick kids for a while, and after that vacation, in between all of that life was going crazy. However, I have a post today.
To practice for a class coming up. I had the kids make cake pops with me. =)
Also a product review in this post to boot!
The product is the Nordic Ware Cake Pop pan. For my class I will be showing how to do the classic cake pops rolled by hand as well as baking them in a cake pop pan.
this image from Nordic Ware
So I have never had a problem with the Nordic Ware line of products. (note: I have not gotten paid or compensated for my review. ) The line is wonderful, and this particular product has a non stick coating on the pan which helps. However, you will still have to spray it down and sprinkle with flour, just to be safe. It is made of aluminum and coated to create ease of use. It was very easy. I made one pan of pops and made the rest of the cake the traditional cake pop way.
I immediately liked the cake pops that came out of this pan as it has no icing in it, so it was less sweet, a huge plus if you don’t like super sweet items. You will have to remove excess cake around the edges. You will want to use a spoon and pour some cake batter into the bottom pan. Mound up the batter a small amount to ensure that it will fill the pan. A small amount of the cake will squish to the side, when you put the lock into place, so you will need to clean off the sides.
Bake at 350 for about 23-25 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove them completely.
Then melt the chocolate and decorate as normal.
For both balls I made a butter cake. For the hand rolled ones I made them with a cream cheese frosting.
Enough with the talking though, here are the pictures. My kids were every so happy to help me with the cake pops, as well as daddy. They both ate 3 hand rolled balls before they ever dipped them =)
Harry Potter, Gryffindor cake
My friend’s son had a major milestone birthday. Her little boy was/turned 5 years old. Yay!!!
He loves Harry Potter, specifically House Gryffindor. My little ones and I were lucky to have lunch with him and his mamma. Over lunch we discussed what he likes, and what he wanted for his birthday cake.
His request was Gryffindor, marble cake, and he wanted a strawberry cream filling. So I ran with that. =)
Anyhow, enough with the talking, here are the pictures.
This is the Gryffindor shield with rampant lion that I found on the interwebs. I decided to use this one, cause it was pretty and I thought a nice shield and would translate nicely in Icing.
This is the first Rampant Lion I have ever drawn/Iced on a cake. =) As heraldic animals go the lion is pretty nice.
She mentioned that I did not need to do anything to elaborate, however, I get excited and sometimes carried away.
I also made some fondant items. A speedy nimbus like broom, a wand and a scarf.
I was informed that the cake was a hit, and the little man for whom it was made was excited. =) That right there is why I do this, I love to make people happy. The shield was done in buttercream, the other decorations are all fondant.
(Tips: If you are going to try to drawn on a cake. Look at the design or image in layers. When I went to make it, I started with the background shield, then the decorations on the shield, then the lion and the Gryffindor ribbon, then the Word, and Details on the lion. )
Strawberry and chocolate cake
About a week ago it was my husbands birthday.
He loves and always asks only for white cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. This is a wonderful winning combination, however being who I am I would love to make him something more complicated. I know he likes that and I should just make it the way he wants… however, this year I changed it up a bit.
I made it with chocolate cake, strawberries, whipped cream, and put chocolate cigarets on the outside. The kids asked if the could decorate the cake with sprinkles for daddy, so of course I said yes.
Birthday Daddy and kids.
Note: the concentrated piles of sprinkles are my daughters contribution. My son spread the sprinkles more generously. =)
A squirrel of a cake
This client wanted a squirrel and acorns on the cake for her sons’s second birthday. She was smiling ear to ear saying he just loves them and gets so excited when he see’s them. She was affectionately called the squirrel lady after this. =)
My first attempt looked like a fox and I was just not happy with it, so I redid it. I did not take a picture of the fox.
She loved it, I told her I hope Nate has a fantastic birthday.
Dora the Explorer Birthday Cake/ Thank You
I had an order where a customer wanted me to draw Dora The Explorer on the cake. She brought in her thank you card, and asked me to copy the card onto the cake. 
Here is the Dora Thank you card. (One of my biggest worries is not making the cake look as good as the client wants it. When it is a well known character it is even harder sometimes one mistake and it can look like a pile.)
My coworkers said ok no problem, Tanya can do it. =)
The background is airbrushed, all decorations are made out of butter cream.
The funny thing is I made this one, and the next day I had another lady come up to me asking for a Dora cake, she did not want the one that was a bakery craft design, with the toy. She wanted something “better” so some one says oh she did one yesterday, and we bring it out for her to see, as the first client will be in soon to pick it up. She lit up and said yes that is what I want, I even have the same invitations/plates. The second Dora cake will make its way on here soon.
Personally I think Dora came out a looking a little weird, however, the client really liked it.
Baptism Daisy Cake
This client came in wanting a three tiered offset, rectangular cake. She wanted Daisy’s with lavender, light pink, and light yellow centers. She requested a pink ribbon, and a pink cross on the cake.
Flowers and ribbon fondant. The cakes were iced in white butter cream. The 1/4 sheet cake was white, the 1/8th sheet cake was chocolate, and the 1/16th sheet cake was white cake. 
Sorry the pictures came out white washed. Use my phone at work to take the pictures.
Zebra on Orange
This is a cake a client came in asking for a realistic zebra on a bright orange background.
I am always a little worried when they want a realistic animal on a cake and they want me to draw it. Working with icing is a hard medium to do that with, also I am not the best at making a realistic looking animal in any medium. Its good to know your limitations. You can always learn more, and eventually do better, but it is good to know your limitations to keep yourself out of trouble.
The trouble with this cake is, I did not take the order, and people at my work think I can draw anything. *grins* I take it as a compliment but it is far from the case.
Well enough babbling. This little girl loves bright orange and zebra print, and apparently she watches Animal Planet. So that was the colors and theme of her party. 
They asked for White and Black borders. 
Jungle Cake 1st Birthday
I often have customers come in wanting me to recreate the exact picture they have on a napkin or on an invitation. This day this lady wanted me to copy what was on her babies first birthday napkin so that the cake matched the decorations.
Here is the napkin.
Here is the background I airbrushed onto the cake. All background decorations were hand airbrushed by me.
Here is completed cake, all foreground decorations are drawn in vanilla buttercream icing, and colored to try to capture the colors in the napkin.
This client also wanted a smash cake to go with it. Here is the accompanying cake.
I took the pictures without the writing on the cake. The specific directions asked for some of the characters on the cake. I put in as many as I felt would make the cake look good… I left out the snake. I find it funny when I come into work and find a cake like this for me. They (the person taking the order) assumes I can do the decorations. It is a challenge but a fun challenge. =)
A Turtle-tastic Baby shower
A close friend of mine is going to bring a beautiful bouncing baby boy into this world. I had the honor of making her baby shower cake.
I think turtles are cute, and boys and turtles seem to go together. 
I chose blue, white, and green as the colors. This is a two tiered cake. Bottom tier is chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and swiss meringue butter cream. Top tier is a vanilla butter cake with swiss meringue butter cream filling and icing. I then covered it with fondant and the fondant decorations. The turtle is hand modeled out of fondant as well. We can’t wait till he is born. =)
Fall Buttercream tiered cake
I hope everyone had a great holiday. We had a wonderful Turkey day. My kids had blast. I have been super busy so have neglected my blog.
One of my client came back in. Asking for a last minute Tiered Buttercream cake again. This time it was for their parents anniversary, and they loved the last cake I made them.
Here is a 1/2 sheet, 1/4 sheet and 1/8 sheet rectangular cake. All decorated with buttercream.
What is Black and White and Red roses all over
This is a special cake request that came in. 
The client wanted a white iced cake, with black swirls, and red roses. 
This is a two tiered cake, with bottom tier is a 8″ round 4 layer white cake with white buttercream filling, and the top tier is a 6.5″ round 4 layer chocolate cake with white buttercream filling. 
All decorations are buttercream.
Mini Mouse Birthday
My daughter just turned two, we had her Mini Mouse birthday party Saturday.
I asked her what kinda birthday party she wanted and she responded Mini Mouse.
She requested strawberry cake. So I made a strawberry cake with strawberry preserves. 
I also made Strawberry cupcakes. I made the Swiss Mirangue buttercream. 
The cake is covered in buttercream, pink fondant, white fondant dots, and the Mini head and bows are made of colored fondant.
I had to work at 5 am that morning till 10 am, so I was rushing to finish the cake. There are some parts that I wish were better I see flaws. I literally finished decorating the cake and putting up the decorations 10 minutes before people started showing up.
Birthday Girl and her Brother. She was very specific. There had to be party hats and they had to be the cone kind. I was very surprised at how detailed she was at telling me what she wanted. =)
Pink buttercream and white “sprinkles” my daughter calls them.
Pink and purple balloons completed the decorations.
She had a blast and was saying Mini Mouse Party to everyone. =) I cannot believe she is 2 now.
Disney Princess Castle Cake
This is a Disney Princess Castle cake. The cake toppers are a kit and the decorations are as recommended by Bakercraft. 
However, I thought you all might like to see from start to finish this cake.
This is the base iced cake. It is chocolate on top and white on bottom.
This is the same cake after air brushing.
Final cake after decorations and piping completed.
Bottom tier is 1/4 sheet, while top tier is modified 1/4 sheet. To get the ramp road you have to take the cake cut out of modified top tier and cut a cake ramp and ice.
All decorations are buttercream.
Elmo and Friends cake
Sorry been away from the computer, and my daily life. Threw my back out so I have been laying prone for the last 4 days.
My favorite one that I think came out great was Big Bird. I don’t remember there being a ton more characters, but apparently there are a lot of them there now.
Ok back to healing….
A New York Jets Jersey Cake
I had a customer come in asking for a New York Jets Jersey cake.
Here is what I came up with.
All decorations are in buttercream.
I am not a big sports fan, but I did what I could….I more often have requests to make a Redskins Jersey.
This was done on a 1/2 sheet cake.
Checks and flowers cake
This was my second ever attempt at a fondant cake while I was in school. I wanted to try making a check pattern. I learned quickly that with symmetric design you have to be perfect in measurements and cutting. The more symmetric the more it will show up if you are not as accurate as you can be. We were asked to make another fondant cake by our chef instructor. I decided to a checks and flowers cake.
The dome is a dome of cake iced and covered in fondant.
It is nothing special just felt like playing around with the shapes.
When ever I was asked to do something in class I would try to take it a step further so that I could stretch myself doing the assignment.
Crayola Crayon Box cake
I had a client come in wanting a cake shaped like a crayola crayon box. She had a picture of what she wanted and I did my best to recreate it based on the picture.
Here is what I came up with.
It was not hard to recreate, however it did take a while. The cake picture that she found on the internet had cake decorated with stars, but I used shells made out of buttercream to make it instead. I like how it came out. The crayons looked like they made them out of Fondant, but the lady just wanted Icing. All decorations are made out of buttercream icing.
The cake dimensions are:
1/2 sheet Chocolate cake, with raspberry preserves filling, decorated with vanilla buttercream.
(note: if the original design for the cake is yours, please let me know I will give you full credit for it. I get clients that bring in cakes pictures and want me to recreate them. With the internet becoming so popular the I find more and more people are doing this. The cake in these pictures however is my creation from someone elses inspiration.)
Sponge Bob Pineapple house cake
Here is a Sponge Bob Pineapple house cake that I made. The toys and the pineapple are a kit you can buy, and they suggest decorating the cake in the way I did. 
I will show you pictures and how to get the texture of the sand on the cake with your air brush. 
All decorations other than the characters, pineapple and the backdrop are buttercream decorations.
So the cake is airbrushed blue, with green flowers for background. The tan areas are the sand. To get this sand texture you have to use the air brush gun. 
The sand on the left hand of the first tier has not been completely textured. The sand on the right hand side and bottom of the cake have had the texture added.
To do this you will need to have your air brush gun empty. I use about a medium to high setting for the compressed air coming out. You need to change the settings if your icing is thicker or thinner respectively. 
What you will do is take your airbrush turn on the compressor, and point the air coming out of towards the pile of icing you have that you need to texture. Without any color in the gun, spray and allow the air to make pock marks in the pile of icing. This makes the texture that I use to make quick sand like effect.
I have also used this technique to make dried cooled lava rocks. When making a volcano type cake, you can make a grey/black icing and pock mark it like this to make the lava rock texture.
Not a super exciting post but thought people might like to know a quick tip or how to. =)
Firefly and Astronomy 50th Birthday Cake
The wonderful lady that ordered the Merlin cake came back for another order. For her husbands 50th birthday. 
He is an astronomer, and loves the sci fiction series Firefly. So we did a cake mash up of the two things. One of his favorite planets is Saturn so we had to add that to the cake. 
His favorite flavor profile is chocolate and hazel nut. So I made a two tiered fondant covered cake. The cake was devils food cake, filling was hazelnut and chocolate, and I make a hazelnut chocolate buttercream.
To tie the two concepts together, I made planets, one of his favorite telescopes, the Firefly class ship, Mal’s gun holster, Firefly logo, and Saturn one of his favorite planets. His favorite colors are blue and green so I made sure to incorporate that into the design. 
Mal’s gun holster
And here are some of the in progress pictures of the items I modeled out of fondant.
Beautiful Tangerine and Dragees Wedding Cake
This last weekend I was privileged enough to be able to create a cake and attend a beautiful wedding. I know the Groom and Bride so it was a pleasure to make their special days cake. 
The Bride loves tangerine orange, and it was evident in her wedding the brides maids had the same color dresses, and grooms men had tangerine ties. 
The order was 5 x 10 inch cakes, that were 5 inches high. They requested a white cake, and I made Swiss buttercream. I have put the recipe on this blog before but I will add it to the bottom of the post. 
I had to make 10 cakes each cake was final cake was two layers. I only had room in my oven for 4 cakes at a time. =) For the Swiss Buttercream I had to make two batches of 3 times the recipe. The cakes are iced in the buttercream.
I made tangerine ribbons and bows out of the fondant, and I hand drageed all the cakes. They also requested that I make the cake topper, which were two cute hedge hogs. 
These were made out of fondant, I made them months in advance so that they would dry out completely.
This is the picture of the hedgehogs they wanted and found online. I am not certain where they got it from so if it is yours please let me know and I will credit you for your work. 
Here is the set up I did for their wedding cake table. I created the support structure and arranged the fabric.
The beautiful Bride and Groom loved the cakes and that was all I cared about. I wanted them to have a great day and a wonderful memories.
Swiss Buttercream:
4 ounces of egg whites 8 ounces of sugar 12 ounces of butter Cook the egg whites and the sugar, on ban marie. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites, beat them till combined. Beat your egg whites and sugar 1/2 at a time, get it frothy. You want to get it to 140 degrees. Rub between your fingers, when it is not grainy safe. 3 to 4 minutes. Whip egg whites till cool using whip attachment. 4 to 5 minutes. Switch to paddle attachment, egg whites should be cool to the touch. Add the butter one piece at a time. Middle of it, the buttercream will look curdled. Keep beating. When done all butter will be incorporated it is silky, and will make a slapping sound in the machine.
Traditional Black Forest Cake
This is a traditional black forest cake. There are three layers of dark chocolate cake, cherry coulis, cherries, and whipped cream. I topped it off with some brandied cherries, and milk chocolate shavings, and dark chocolate shavings.
A Smurfy Cake
This client wanted me to draw a Smurf on a cake, specifically the girl Smurf. Her name escapes me right now. The only girl Smurf… I remember watching the Smurfs when I was little. I never thought anything of the fact that she was the only girl Smurf. The client said she looked everywhere and could not find a place that had a Smurf cake for her daughters Smurfy party. So I offered to draw it. =)
Anyhow, I have never ever drawn a Smurf on a cake. What is her name not…Papa Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Grumpy Smurf is that a Smurf or a dwarf? Man I am going to have to hit the Google to find out what her name is. She was not called girl Smurf. O.M.G. Smurfette I found it on Google of course. How could I forget? (the rambling thoughts of Tanya’s brain was brought to you by the letter S and G, now back to your regularly scheduled program.)
Back to the cake. All decorations are in buttercream and its is on a 1/4 sheet cake with fresh strawberry filling.
I think it came out ok. Something off about the colors. I am thinking the hair could have been a darker yellow.
The client loved it or so I am told. She picked it up when I was off. =)
Cross of Roses cake
The clients requirements for this cake is that the entire cake be blue, with white trim, writing and white cross of roses. It’s a simple 1/2 sheet half chocolate cake and half white cake. They specifically requested a white rose cross on the left hand side, and the writing on the right hand side.
All decorations are in buttercream. To make the cross of flowers just figure out where you want the cross, and I do about 5 roses on the main part of the cross, and two on each shorter arm. I fill it out with some rose buds and leaves. Normally I would use a light green in this instance for the leaves, but the request was for everything white.
It is a simple cake but I think it came out nicely.
cakesplosion 